About Me

I am a native of Illinois and grew up in Wilmette, a northern suburb of Chicago. I have one sibling, an older brother.
After dropping out of college, I moved to California in 1973 with my first husband. I married my present husband, Butch, in 1977 and got 4 children in the deal. They have gone on to make me a grandmother 24 times over and a great-grandmother of 16 with three more due in 2016.
Three years after I married Butch I returned to school. I got my bachelors and masters degrees in speech communication and was a professor in that field for 13 years. I retired in 2001 to return to school and get my doctorate in folklore. Now I meld my two interests - folklore and genealogy - and add my teaching background, resulting in my current profession: speaker/entertainer of genealogically-related topics. I play a number of folk instruments, but my preference is guitar, which I have been playing since 1963. I am a Board Certified genealogist and more information on all this, as well as direct contact info, is on my Circlemending website.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Response to Poetry/Song Challenge of Bill West

My blogger friend Bill West, whose music and family stories tastes seem to run right along with mine, has challenged his readers to find poetry or song lyrics that are ancestrally related. Here are his rules and my responses to them:

1. Find a poem by a local poet, famous or obscure, from the region one of your ancestors lived in. It can be about an historical event, a legend, a person, or even about some place (like a river)or a local animal.Or if you prefer, post the lyrics of a song or a link to a video of someone performing the song.

I love the option of "obscure," because that is exactly what this poet was. She was my grandmother and, even during the time I knew her (my early childhood) I think "obscure" would have been the perfect label. Her poetry usually was religious, but she often wrote poems to honor a friend, family member, or well known person. However, she had a humorous side to her and that would come out in odd ways in her poetry. Because this challenge is asking that the poem be about an event, person, or place, etc., I think that this particular piece (though not stated as being autobiographical, obviously was) fits perfectly.

2. Post the poem or song to your blog (remembering to cite the source where you found it.)

The poet, about four years before she penned this piece

Among my grandmother's effects were all of her writings. I took on the chore of transcribing all of her English works (I have yet to tackle the many written in German). So the citation is as follows:

Oh, how many aching feetCan be found at night,When the street car is so fullAnd we're packed so tight.

Don't you talk about a seat,Such a thing is rare,As there's hardly standing-roomFor the people there.

Some of them have stood all day,And their feet do ache,But to stand and hold a strapThat just takes the cake.

And the straps are up so highThat it is no snapFor a girl who's naturally shortTo hang on a strap.

But the worst of all is this:If some heavy formComes along and plants his footRight upon your corn.

Oh, what dreadful agonyWe do have to bear.But we're just compelled to payThe same five cent fare.

3.Tell us how the subject of the poem or song relates to your ancestor's home or life.

Pauline Elizabeth Miller met my grandfather about ten years after writing this poem. Prior to their meeting at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois, my grandmother lived in Chicago and had to take the street car to get to work (she was a stenographer). Her reliance on public transportation obviously was not always enjoyed, but her sense of humor, plus the need for her income to augment what little the family had, surely saw her through the worst of it.

During her adult, single life, she cared for her mother and helped to put her younger brother through school. She was a devout Baptist, besides attending Moody, in later years she worked for Paul Rader at the famous Chicago Tabernacle, doing secretarial work for him, still commuting by street car and, later, buses.

Pauline Miller Wilcox, in the early 1900s, Chicago, Illinois

Pauline was a short woman who had suffered from whooping cough as a young child. For some reason, her doctor had her wear a body cast and then the physician just disappeared (he may have died; no one is certain), leaving her body in the cast for many months, causing an unusual spine curvature which resulted in her small stature that probably would not have been her lot had the cast been removed in a timely matter.

Pauline (on the left) with her older sister Ottillie (they were only two yearsapart in age and Pauline was about four in this photo, being after shewas out of the cast, but the damage was done).Photo ca. 1883, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Throughout her unmarried adult life, Pauline wore shoes that were fashionable, in spite of the pain they caused her feet. As a result, she was plagued with foot problems so severe that, in later life, the podiatrist would make house calls. She always told me to "wear shoes for comfort, not fashion," and I have followed her advice throughout my life. These various details of her life are all expressed in this poem, making me believe that it is autobiographical.

Your grandmother Pauline has such a wonderful voice. I hear her exhaustion, humor and even some determination in her poem, as well as a sense of Chicago's bustle. That's a lot to pack into a few words. Thanks for posting it for all of us to read.

I feel sorry for her having to ride the street car at the end of a day - probably at the end of many days. I like how you gave so much information about her childhood difficulties and how she carried on. It's wonderful that she saved all her poems. Thanks for sharing.

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Material on this blog is copyrighted by Jean Wilcox Hibben. Any information from a source other than Jean Wilcox Hibben is credited accordingly. Reproduction or reprinting of it in any way is prohibited without written permission from its author or the cited source.